<p>How much on average do high school seniors get in outside scholarship $?Thinking about how I'm going to pay for college in my college sophomore year esp.? Did you guys earned any outside scholarships during your time as a college freshmen? I'm doing online ones right now, but they're so stressful and long to do. And sometimes the idea of knowing my chances of winning them s a decimal doesn't really motivate me...</p>
<p>The very best scholarships are awarded by the colleges themselves. Outside scholarships tend to be small in amount and one time awards. </p>
<p>Some colleges do have departmental scholarships for upperclass students. They usually are not huge amounts, but every penny counts.</p>
<p>I will offer this. College is a four year financial plan. If you are already concerned about how you will pay for sophomore year…perhaps this college isn’t affordable.</p>
<p>Why is sophomore year different? Do you mean all years after sophomore year, like you can only afford freshman year? It is important to try to make a 4 year plan for college and not go to one you can’t afford. </p>
<p>I think most hs students don’t get any outside scholarships. They are hard to come by and usually aren’t renewable, they are just 500 or 1,000. Look for the bigger ones. Look for local ones where the odds are better, like local businesses and banks and rotary club and elks and parent’s employer. Look for renewable ones. After you start college it will be even harder to find them.</p>
<p>Why would filling out forms and doing essay be stressful? It is the least work you will ever do for free money.</p>
<p>I asked a number of friends with older kids and the college office at the high school about outside scholarships. The takeaway - a lot of time and effort can get sucked up with little benefit. Since the information is easily available through the web, there are tons of applications for small ($1000 or less) one time scholarships. Better to focus on high school and college specific options, or find scholarships in the community for which you are uniquely suited (as in they are looking for specific demographic and/or career direction). </p>
<p>Are you a high school or college student???</p>
<p>Outside scholarships are not commonly awarded and are usually small and only for one year. You can’t depend on those.</p>
<p>If you don’t like online classes, go to your local CC.</p>
<p>My kids got a couple of thousand dollars in outside scholarships for their FRESHMAN year, and didn’t get ONE PENNY their sophomore year. </p>
<p>The outside scholarships they received for freshman year were open to HS seniors only, and were not renewable. They were from local organizations (school PTO, educational foundation, church, etc).</p>
<p>You would be wiser to ask how much in first time outside scholarship money is awarded to sophomores in college. The answer to that is likely a very low number.</p>
<p>I disagree that these small scholarships should be dismissed. My daughters each got $2000 (non-renewable) from a group my father belongs to, and one got a talent scholarship that she must try out for every year. That money can help with many of the first year start-up costs like buying a lap top or some things for the dorm, or even a car if that is needed (rather than using saved up money for tuition)</p>
<p>A friend of my daughter’s received a number of these $100-1000 awards, plus a good merit award. I don’t think her parents have to pay anything for the first year, but may have to pay in the future. That’s still better than having to pay all 4 years. She did put in a lot of time on these scholarships as many required art work, volunteer hours, or essays. She wanted to do that anyway, so why not take the extra step and submit the scholarship app?</p>
<p>The top students in each field at a college can get up to ~$2K/year after freshman year (at a pricey private college). Only the top students get those continuing scholarships.</p>
<p>I’m talking about the online scholarships where only one scholarship is awarded and it’s nationwide. </p>
<p>college student</p>
<p>Are you applying through fast web or something similar? </p>
<p>Nothing wrong with applying. You may net some money. But if it’s a nationwide scholarship and only one person gets the nod I would not count on this as a money stream.</p>
<p>Check your college for what is available, if anything, for continuing students.</p>
<p>Every penny counts!</p>
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<p>I’ll agree that it’s always nice to have some outside scholarship money, but they are a lot of work for what is often essentially a lottery ticket. I think most kids are strapped for time and energy and should look at the odds of a payoff. My D is only applying to one local scholarship ($100 to $500) and one national one ($500 to $2000). She’s actually got a better shot at the higher paying national scholarship since it’s related to her EC. In that one, she’s competing only against other kids who do her EC, but she’s competing with them on an academic level, where she should do quite well. My guess is several hundred kids apply and about two dozen prizes are awarded - not bad odds at all! We think she has an excellent shot at a scholarship in the $500 to $1000 range. There are three $2000 scholarships granted and we do think (hope) she will be in the running for one of them, but judging by the college choices of previous years’ winners, we know there are probably a dozen (or more) kids who will be right up there with her. </p>
<p>Otherwise, our D is going after merit money at individual colleges. 2 of the schools require a supplemental application for the big money, and 5 will require interviews in order for her to be considered either for admission or for the biggest scholarships, assuming they invite her. In my mind, that’s more than enough work and pressure for her senior year of high school. In the end, she may drop entering the local scholarship since the relatively low potential payoff feels like the last place she should be putting her efforts. </p>
<p>Outside scholarships are heavily focused toward graduating high school seniors and most are token amounts. My DD2 received one for $2,500, non-renewable, from my workplace but otherwise, her scholarship funds come from renewable merit: (1) her college and (2) from the state. As others have noted, this is a 4-year financial endeavor so calculate your remaining college costs on the next 3 years of expenses, not solely the upcoming year. </p>
<p>My DD won 13 scholarships for her freshman year. Two of those also paid some each year - a local school group and Elks. She won a couple others over the next 3 years. All in all, they covered around 2 1/2 years at her state school. At least five of those were for military kids, one church based and the others were mainly local organizations such as Kiwanis. We lived in a small town and not many kids applied for some of those. </p>
<p>My younger DD with similar stats won one scholarship total. We had moved and lived in a much larger area with more competition. </p>
<p>One of my daughters received 1750/year from the grocery store where I moonlighted her senior year of high school, 1000-2500/year (varied, had to reapply every year) through our religious affiliation, and 2000/year from a community foundation (had to reapply every year). </p>
<p>Check with your guidance office to see if there are local scholarships for which you can apply. My daughter found two of those three scholarships through her guidance counselor.</p>
<p>The “average” scholarship amount is meaningless, since the overwhelming majority get zero.</p>
<p>^^^^
Very true. Most get nothing.</p>
<p>The decision to apply for outside scholarships can depend on “connections”. If the student has some connection (local award, parent connection, etc), then it can be worth the time to apply …especially if the student is a strong student.</p>
<p>however, it can be a waste of time to apply to random FastWeb type scholarships where millions of kids are applying to the same random awards. </p>
<p>Both of my kids got awards from H’s company. It wasn’t a waste of time to apply since they had very high stats and would likely get the awards, which they did. My younger son applied for an engineering award from an Engineering society. He got that award. However, they didn’t bother spending a gazillion hours applying to FastWeb-type random scholarships.</p>
<p>Ideally. what’s the ideal amount of $ would you would want to spend on college if you’re commuter? What’s the average amount of $ do the typical college spend on tuition including loans? Didn’t get any merit scholarships at the college I’m going to but I fell in love with my school. The education and curriculum is AMAZING and have classes that I’m interested in. :(</p>
<p>Portal…the averages do NOT matter at all. All that matters is what your family can afford to pay.</p>
<p>Ouch. Reality. Thanks, Thumper. :(</p>